Too Much Education Affects Mental Health, Researchers Find

Overeducated people are more likely to suffer from depression

Too much education can prove detrimental to one's mental health

This past Saturday, a team of researchers speaking at a meeting of the American Sociological Association announced that, under certain circumstances, education could prove detrimental to one's mental health.

Scientists explain that, according to their investigations, people who receive too little education and therefore have difficulties coping with the world are not the only ones at risk of developing certain mental health problems at some point in their lives.

On the contrary, people who can be labeled as overeducated also run a high risk of being diagnosed with depression, the specialists show.

Live Science reports that the so-called overeducated individuals believed to have an increased risk of depression are the ones whose educational background does not see eye to eye with the requirements of their jobs.

Long story short, people who have more years of education than their jobs require are bound to sooner or later have their mental health affected by this status quo.

Researchers theorize that this is due to the fact that individuals belonging to this category of people possess skills that they seldom get to use.

Besides, it is likely that their jobs fail to challenge them and/or provide them with the status and the prestige their extensive educational background makes them entitled to.

Specialists explain that, while it is OK for an individual's first job to be one they are overqualified for, it is of utmost importance that future jobs allow them to make the most of their knowledge.

Otherwise, depression and other similar mental health problems might be just around the corner.

Researchers base their claim that too much education can sometimes do more harm than good on data collected while surveying the mental health of 16,600 employees working in 21 European countries.

The individuals taken into consideration for this investigation were between the ages of 25 and 60.